At present a number of medicines are in widespread use in medicine for individual prevention of venereal diseases, such as silver-containing drugs, potassium permanganate, and mercury preparations, e.g., mercury dichloride solution, mercury subchloride ointment and Dublosan ointment. With the purpose of preventing syphilis and gonorrhea a medicinal preparation Oxyviridol has been suggested, consisting of 0.035 mass percent mercuric oxycyanide and 50 mass percent green soap in glycerine (cf. `Medical prescription reference book` compiled by M. Kh. Bergolts, 1952, Medgiz Publishers, Moscow). However, the aforementioned drug possesses inadequate bactericidal potency against syphilis and gonorrhea pathogens, produces a considerable irritating effect on urethral mucosa, causes desquamation and lysis of the epithelial lining, and is therefore unsafe in clinical uses. The medical preparations mentioned above fail to find extensive application due to their inadequate reliability, whereas mercury-based drugs cannot be guaranteed as safe for human organism.
There has been proposed within recent years a 0.05-0.1 percent solution of Chlorhexidine (Hibitane) as a preventive of venereal diseases. The drug possesses an adequate bactericidal activity in experiments in vitro and in tests on animals (cf. `The dermatology and venereology herald`, No. 6, 1978, Moscow, On personal prevention of venereal diseases by I. M. Ovchinnikov et al., p. 49 (in Russian). However, clinical application of the aforesaid drug is accompanied by an irritating and withering effect upon the skin and genital mucosa in man. Besides, industrial production of Hibitane is a complicated and highly labour-consuming task.
Applied for topical (external) treatment of urogenital trichomoniasis are boric acid, lapis, zinc sulphate, copper sulphate, laevomycetin, Acetarsol, and others. However, these drugs are insufficiently efficacious and fail therefore to find windspread application.
At the present time imidazole medicines are most efficient for treatment of the aforesaid disease, e.g., Tinidazole, Metronidazole and Trichopol. However, their clinical use is attended by ever increasing resistance of trichomonads to the action of these drugs, which in turn is responsible for relapsing of a specific process (up to 8.4 percent of all cases) and for the onset of posttrichomonal phenomena. The drugs may be causative of some side effects, and are contraindicated in cases of hemopoietic disturbances, or active CNS affections.